Thursday, April 20, 2017

It's rather ironic, but even though it has never been easier to bypass the publishing gatekeepers, they are tightening their enforcement of diversity and SJW ideology in the areas they still control. Jon Del Arroz says that it's time to burn the ships and go all-in on the new platforms:

I learned that there is an author who had a manuscript rejected because multiple agents said this person “culturally appropriated” and that the author “doesn’t have the authority” to talk about this project.

That’s right. The piece was good, it would have been fine, but the problem is it would have had to come from a non-white author.

The agents actively discriminated against an author because they are white. A white writer was told to censor what that person writes and that it’s not welcome in the industry because of solely whiteness.

A writer who shall remain nameless notes that some writers of his acquaintance are afraid to break free and are instead responding by preemptively self-censoring in response to these restricted standards:

Originally we were going to do a Viking Saga kinda thing as a serial in REDACTED but somewhere they decided not to do European white male stories. This publication is self-sabotaged by the publisher and editors from the outset. Looking for all those non-white readers that we keep being told are out there. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

This is precisely why Castalia House exists. And this is why, if you do not wish to see total convergence in SF/F of the sort now seen in the comics industry, it is vital to continue to support it, and to spread the word about it. The support our readers have provided us has been phenomenal, and has fueled three years of steady growth, but we're not content to defensively provide a platform for our existing authors, we intend to take the offensive and start reclaiming some of the territory that has been lost to the SJWs.

Michael Martel explains to someone why he has to go back.

The gates have been cracked, but the citadels still remain standing and far too much of the city remains under their sway. A lot of work remains to do, and the recent Amazon affiliate changes stand as a warning that the gatekeepers have other ways of exerting their control. That's why, over the next three months, you will gradually see most of our books moving off of Kindle Select and Kindle Unlimited, and see the links here increasingly redirected towards the Castalia House store.

170 Comments:

Amazing, when you think about it, it make you wonder if Scalzi's leftism is fueled in part by this mania. After all he is a white male who lived in a diverse state and moved to a white area to raise his daughter. He writes military SF that isn't terribly preachy. It would be interesting if he modified his views how TOR would react.

@1. Being a social justice manatee is no longer enough. You have to write within the rules given to you. I guess if you are Stross and part of the books is a satire of these things (the aliens claimed asylum under the EU code of human rights in the last Laundry book) then you can get off the hook.

But a white bread bloke from Ohio? He better be completely bland, boring and correct. The Mayavosky of science fiction, without the vocabulary or wit.

I speak only for myself but I'm already sick of the prevalence of strong female characters.I'm not a woman. i don't want to read about some waif doing everything a man can do.I'm sick of the over abundance of gay characters. Not every woman is a lesbian when the mood strikes. Not every third man is in the closet or sexually fluid. I'm sick of being preached at about Global Warming as if its real or how any politics not strictly socialist or multiculturalist is evil.I don't want to read about a Black/Muslim character experiencincing racism.I'm sick of the lie that women were always soldiers and strong generals. That in a rough military environment women not only thrive but exceed the abilities of most men.

Its infuriating to open every second book and be confronted by the same tired nonsense. Mark Lawrence a promising author who wrote Jorg Ancrath one of my favourite fantasy characters released a book about a kick ass chick in a world where women are dangerous. "Red Sister is a magical academy story. Young farm girl born into a situation where the world is against her finds out she has magic powers and is part of some great prophecy," Yawn. At this rate the gatekeepers will succeed in expunging men from reading SF/F and will soon realize who'se been the main demographic all along.As a non white reader. I can honestly say I dont want to read about non white characters.

"At this rate the gatekeepers will succeed in expunging men from reading SF/F and will soon realize who'se been the main demographic all along"Some mid century pulp editors claimed that women made larger portion of their readership... And women were always numerous in genre fiction in any case, both as writers and as readers.

parz wrote:"At this rate the gatekeepers will succeed in expunging men from reading SF/F and will soon realize who'se been the main demographic all along"

Some mid century pulp editors claimed that women made larger portion of their readership... And women were always numerous in genre fiction in any case, both as writers and as readers.

I can't remember what show I was watching with my girlfriend but it was something that wasn't obviously sci-fi at the beginning. About 75% of the way through the twist was revealed and it was sci-fi related. Her exact reaction was "Ahhh, This is some kind of Sci-Fi crap. I was really getting into it until now!"

The discussion about whether there is any gain from publishing in a traditional publishing house reappears every few weeks on a Polish writers' forum. The opinion of the established writers is that there are two gains only for a debut in a traditional publishing house:(1) Publishing house gives you "stamp of approval". There are literally dozens of people who self-publish their thing (in Poland) and most of it is absolute, toxic crap - with errors at the most basic level. We are not talking about wrongly constructed characters or boring story - we are talking about elementary grammar and ortographic errors, not to mention elementary errors in writers' techniques.(2) Traditional publishing houses let you cooperate with professional editors, who know their stuffs and, in the opinion of those Polish writers, can help a lot debutant authors to master the style.

OTOH, the publishing houses in Poland have not converged yet; there are houses regularly publishing rightwing stuff, and amongst the most popular sf authors are people, who would be burned alive in America (one of them publicly declares that the only good place for leftists is grave, and people still publish his stuff, even if they cringe when they hear him. I love his stuff BTW, and the guy is lovable too :D ).

I don't know about English market, but I think that the (1) is relevant. There are hundreds of people who try to self-publish and quite often their work deserves only flushing in toilet, and spending even one cent on their work would be much too much. THe effort to manually read through the "free samples", given there are hundreds of them, is way to large. Hence, what is needed is actually also some kind of "stamp of approval", by either non-traditional house like Castalia, or at least well-respected network of bloggers. Self-publishing, as in "ignore all the publishing houses", is IMO bad idea.

Also, as one writer in Poland said: "the situation on market is so desperate, that if you writing good stuff, they will publish you no matter whether you are related to publisher, whether you are leftwinger or rightwinger". This, again, seems not to be the case in USA.

Cultural appropriation is real! That's why I tell all my black friends to stop using cell phones, computers, cars, antibiotics, air conditioning, printed books, etc. I care about them and do not want them to be guilty of such a sin.

He writes also fantasy, but it's much weaker in my opinion; and some sf books too, but while very good, not sure whether they will appeal to westerners (e.g. one is about travelling in time to change history of Poland, fighting with Russian agents of Okhrana in XIX century and so on).

Self publishing for a well known established name is an option. For someome unkmowm it will spell into guaranteed initiall loss with low probability of some sort of a future gaim. But all of this does not in any way excuse the sjw pc nonsense that is happening. Look for example at james nicoll's blog. Years ago it used to be interestingNow its impossible to read because you keep on stumblimg om his counting number of poc women works he reviewed. I literally could not continue on reading him. And then rabid puppies happened, during which he advertized them and that turned my attention to this place.

As convenient as Amazon is for ordering and fulfillment, I will happily limit Castalia author purchases to the Castalia site. And,an epub.Question: what would be a good epub reader somewhat analogous to the Kindle paperwhite? My Kindle is on its last leg after much faithful service; and, the battery change looks iffy at best. Most used feature is the internal light and the digital 'ink' they use. If nothing out there to compete maybe 'Alt Kindle'?

Also, so far Amazon has not been smart enough [or stupid enough depending viewpoint] to make the Kindles read epub. Far as I know. Otherwise, I would go out and buy a new one today. Old buddy lasted better than 4 year with much, much use.

I'm starting to get stoked about this new venture. I used to buy comics, though even when I did, most were back issues, because PC was already invading. 'The Watchmen' were about the very last comics issues I bought. The last nail in the coffin, so to speak.

Not familiar enough with Kindle to compare, but I am very happy with Samsung's Galaxy Tab S2 (I have the 10" version). I think it does more than the Kindle (isn't that just a reader?), but I use it mainly for reading.

The Dark Knight Returns is the last major Alt-Right graphic novel of any significance, and it is from the 80s .

He fights a gang of antifa, genocidal tranny Leftist, a literal feminazi (with swastikas on her bared breasts) a cuckservative Superman, and trains a bunch of out of work Trump supporters to restore America.

I'll chime in too about a Kindle replacement. I'm using Kindle Fire and no matter what brightness I set it to, after an hour of reading I can't see actual print on paper very well. I get the same symptom on my phone.

A few comments on the Castalia website, is it a writing blog that sells books, or a publishing house that sells books and also has a writing blog, and featured author pages? I think your bookstore should be the first and most prominent thing on the homepage.

I like that you are moving away from Amazon, and image you'll kick a bit of the percentage Amazon took back to the writers.

Converting your Kindle editions to epub is a lot more inconvenient now, but if you have several books pending for conversion, it's time well spent. Find an old version of Kindle for PC/OSX in the internet. This should be easy, because people are offering them for this very purpose. The moment it is installed, download the books you want and then immediately take your computer off the internet so that Kindle cannot auto-update. It will download the books in the old format, which you can then convert with Calibre. It will auto-update back to the new Kindle version when you connect the internet back. Note: there is no way to tell how long this workaround is possible.

Also, remember that if you email us your Amazon receipt, we will always send you the epub free of charge.

Amazon has chosen to DRM _all_ books, even those that the publisher has requested not to be DRM'd. I'm afraid this may signal that they are planning to make the walls of their walled garden ten feet higher.

With that out of the way, if you like the lighting feature of the Paperwhite your options are rather limited. Basically the readily available ones consist of the B&N Glowlight Plus and the Kobo Aura line. It's possible Sony also has something, but I haven't seen it if they do.

My wife has tried to buy an Aura twice, and both times the purchased failed. The first time on their website, the second time at an Indigo when we were visiting Canada. We took that as a hint and haven't tried again.

If you don't care about having a lit screen you have a lot more options, including two off brand models, the Slick ER701 (available via Amazon) and the Sungale CD706A (available via Walmart). I've never used either, so I can't speak to their quality. I personally have a Nook Simple Touch which works very well, but it's no longer available from B&N. You might be able to find one used or on Ebay, and there was a lighted Simple Touch model that might also be available.

You can read epubs on your Kindle with reasonably little hassle. Your kindle account has a personal email address attached to it, with which you can send content to your device. First, set it up with these instructions:--To get your Kindle's email address, go to www.amazon.com/myk using your PC's Web browser. Tap on "Your Devices," then choose the relevant Kindle from the gallery below. Next to "Email," you'll find the Kindle's email address.

Now click "Settings" and scroll all the way down to the "approved personal document e-mail list." Click "add a new approved e-mail address," and add the email address you intend to send your books from.--

Then, download the free software Calibre and convert your .epub to .mobi. Then, email it as attachment from the email address you approved in the instructions above. Leave the subject and body empty.

Once you've set everything up, it will take less than 5 minutes to get your epubs to all your Kindle devices.

Is it possible to download Castalia House books directly from Castalia House to a Kindle?

There is no faster method than what I laid out above. The entire point of some company like Amazon creating a walled garden is to make it either impossible or a hassle to purchase the thing from anyone else than the owner of the walled garden. Amazon's system is already relatively easy compared to what walled gardens are usually like.

I should note that my above comments concerned only e-ink devices, as that's what most readers seem to prefer. If you don't care about e-ink, just pick up any cheap Android table and load FBReader, the Kobo app, the Nook app, and the Kindle app. You'll be all set.

Re epub/Kindle. Excellent advice from above! Particularly from James and Markku. Markku love the idea of your workarounds. I do have an older kindle [non paperwhite] which I will try the download trick. Maybe the Calibre guy will crack the new Amazon system soon. Not surprised their programmers have done what they did. The surprise is it took them so long. I imagine Markku could make a small fortune doing quick programming for people like them. But, then, Markku might have trouble viewing himself in the mirror. Stay frosty Markku, stay with the Castalia ideal.

It's illegal in many jurisdictions to break DRM even for your personal use of what you've paid for, and the Calibre guy has already said that he has no intention of doing so. I think there are only two possibilities:1) Someone will make a free Calibre PLUGIN that breaks the DRM, or2) Amazon realizes that they didn't intend to DRM the books where the publisher has requested the DRM to be off, and removes it.

Ostensibly the rationale for that law is that the seller may already have taken into account in the price of the book that you are purchasing a restrictive license that keeps you in the walled garden, and if you break the DRM you are stealing rights that you didn't pay for.

Since I mentioned the Nook Simple Touch above: I just checked, and the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight are both still available for various prices and in various conditions on both Amazon and Ebay. Most people would probably prefer to buy a new and still supported ebook reader though.

@Markku: Amazon realizes that they didn't intend to DRM the books where the publisher has requested the DRM to be off, and removes it.

Suppose Calibre guy wants not to do prison time. Can't blame the man. I try to send him donations time to time for Calibre, since I've used it often in the past [mostly to get .mobi out of epub]. He has earned a pass and come caution.It won't take a lot more for me to give up on Amazon and bite the bullet on work you can get only there. So be it. I have an account, going back years with them, they just might miss. This even if they back up on the publisher requested lack of DRM. At the rate Castalia is beating the bushes there will be no lack of reading material, though, you might miss out on some old favorite authors.

It's a ridiculous situation. We know that the new format supports a DRM-less version because Calibre has already implemented it. It's just not available for purchase anywhere. So, the restriction is not technical. It wouldn't even be a hassle for Amazon to do it. Second, the DRM on/off is a simple radio button in the publisher view. So, if they are going to set it on anyway, why even have the button there?

Amazon's excuse for DRM has ALWAYS been that they don't want to do it, but the publishers demand it so their hand is forced. Well, now that some publishers explicitly demand LACK of DRM, and they won't do it, that doesn't really serve their argument well.

Never heard of Andrzej Pilipiuk. Definitely sounds interesting. I've certainly enjoyed Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels (which I only heard of because of the games, despite the authors insistence that the games have NOTHING to do with the books' popularity).

James Nicoll used to be an amusing curmudgeon with an ear for over-the-top reviews that lustily (but not entirely unfairly) savaged various luminaries like Heinlein or Rand. This would on the surface of things make his recent focus on reviewing non-white male works interesting. But alas, based on my admittedly incomplete sampling, he definitely pulls his punches with those POC/genderqueer/etc reviews. It seems to be one more case where apparently leftism is the more important consideration.

Also, his reviews have gotten so excruciatingly politically correct over the years. They remain better than the dispiriting Tor garbage I still occasionally see, but I do hope it's a pose or his life is miserable. Unf'tly I suspect it's misery.

I'm glad others asked about transferring content from one platform to another, because I was concerned about wasting thread space with my lack of even minimal technical know-how. I had a regular Kindle Fire but found it too difficult to read on in daylight, and didn't like the blue-light at night, so I switched to a paperwhite. I much prefer the ease of simply clicking download from Amazon, even though I hate giving money to Bezos. I will do my best to follow Markku's instructions to use epub versions.

FWIW, the SJW rot is spreading to all genres. I read a lot of {admittedly crappy} TEOTWAKI books, and just finished one which has a thinly-disguised evil, power-hungry president obviously intended to be Trump, who sends black-ops teams to shoot innocent, protesting civilians and impose martial law on the country. It was a freebie but still ticked me off. Will leave a 1 star review and warning to other readers, but FWIW this is the first explicitly leftist author I've found in this genre.

VD wrote:One question: should we provide both MOBI and EPUB at the Castalia store or is EPUB sufficient?Please, both. All of my family's actual e-reader devices are kindle touch, kindle paperwhite, or older (I even have the one with the keyboard). I love them, and don't regret the purchase, but I would choose differently now if I was in the market again. However, .MOBI is what I will be reading for a long time.

Conversions from EPUB are generally OK, but it is better if they are published that way to start.

Thank you, VD, for the level of care and concern you bring to your customer experience!

This Amazon DRM change must be very recent, as this is the first I am hearing of it. The only reason I bought Castalia House products from Amazon, besides Vox's request, was because they were DRM free there and I could easily convert them.

#17 Szopen, that's what KU is for. If I start reading a book with an interesting premise, and find that the 'hero' is a promiscuous guy who sleeps with a bearded woman pirate, and back home is gay, then I can toss the book. If, OTOH, I see a book, and it has tanks firing shells at demon-summoning wizards, despite the obligatory Kung Fu Girl, I can read it and many of the follow ups.

Self-pub plus KU is awesome for this reader.

And maybe some of these have small houses like CH, but that's rarely a consideration.

Now, as to your writer friend, sounds interesting. I read 'Play to Live' which was by a Russian, and a good part of the fun was getting the Russian viewpoint on things. "We symbolize our love of peace by the tombstones of our enemies on our borders".

You should check out 'Conrad Starguard' series by Leo Frankowski. Polish guy accidentally time travels back to the 11th century, and industrializes Poland to resist the Mongol Invasion.

Americans have at least a passing interest in the varied Small Countries out there. Probably more so than the reverse. I've read three different things about Poland, and how much have you read about Tennessee?

Does Michael Martel work in his secret identity for a bunch of jet-setting, lazy, party high on cocaine idiots who own Merovinge Corporation? They exemplify everything bad about the Elite, and he uses their secret info since he really runs the corporation, against them?

Sheiko29 wrote: I've certainly enjoyed Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels (which I only heard of because of the games, despite the authors insistence that the games have NOTHING to do with the books' popularity).Sapkowski was really popular in central/eastern europe before the games; he had cult following in Poland, was published in Russia, Czech, Lithunia, Spain. When I first read "grain of truth" I was simply enthralled. In fact this is still my favourite story by AS (andrzej sapkowski, as = "ace" in Polish). Some fragments were real poetry and I still consider them the example of the finest prose in modern Polish literature.

In contrast to AS short stories about witcher, though, I found his books about witcher very... unequal. There were great fragments, but also a lot of boring ones. I haven't read his latest witcher book, but i've heard it is a pale shadow even of the original "Saga".

Nevertheless, AS is spoilt because of his huge popularity (for a fantasy author, that is) in Poland. At one point of his life, he was known to become completely drunk at the convents and he would offend everyone afterwards, and soon the organizers were silently appointing unofficial "pals" for him, whose only task was to ensure AS wouldn't get drunk.

Mr. Rational wrote:@19 How's the market for translations of hard SF? Is Stanislaw Lem a prophet without honor in his own country?

(1) In terms of s-f/fantasy there are a lot of translated work from English, and occasional Russian/Czech works. In fact, there are publishing houses which pretty much have the policy of publishing ONLY the foreign works.

(2) I _love_ Lem and he still is respected, though i've heard opinion recently that his writing is now obsolete and his language no longer "fits" the younger population tastes. I don't know. I've read some short stories by Lem to my daughter when she was young and she loved them (though she also was scared by some of them). My son read Cyberiad and he loved it, but he couldn't start the Invincible (and he is too young for Solaris or Fiasco).

BTW there are still Lem's books which were, IIRC, never translated into English (Wizja Lokalna, Dialogues) and which are great. Wizja lokalna is IMO one of his funniest books and at the same, touching the problems of immortality, happiness etc (part of the book takes place in an alien planet, when there is abundance of everything, and there are nanobots ensuring no one can hurt anyone)

instasetting wrote:#17 Szopen, that's what KU is for. If I start reading a book with an interesting premise, and find that the 'hero' is a promiscuous guy who sleeps with a bearded woman pirate, and back home is gay, then I can toss the book. [...] Self-pub plus KU is awesome for this reader.[...]Americans have at least a passing interest in the varied Small Countries out there. Probably more so than the reverse. I've read three different things about Poland, and how much have you read about Tennessee?

But when out of 100 self-published books 99 is crap, then you can become a little bit averse to anything with stamp "self-published". Also, after wasting time of 99 crap position you start to wish for some filter removing at least part of the said crap.As for Tennessee, I am not sure I read anything related particularly to that state, that's true :D But I've read books written by authors from countries such as Thailand :D

@64,65 Markku.If the A is defaulting drm to on should be a quick test next few Castalia books. Set that drm puppy to off and see what hatches. More work for Markku though there may be a trusted Ilk or three that could handle the load.

Looking for all those non-white readers that we keep being told are out there. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot

I figured out when BLM was new that non Asian minorities are not literate enough to understand a t-shirt for or against them. Every black on TV except for Morgan Freeman only says 4 words before a video edit.

I'm sick of being preached at about Global Warming as if its real

Global cooling from lowered sunspot activity is more likely.

Anyone notice some of the TV series are now sneaking in the PC/SJW stuff after several episodes....bait and switch

Also, if you have an old physical Kindle device which doesn't support the new format, it will download the old format which is still not DRM'd. Or, if your titles have been assigned "enhanced typesetting: off" then that is yet another way you may get un-DRM'd content. But you have no control over that, and it may change at any time.

Sad Markku; can I now suspect a cabal Amazon against Castalia and Vox Day?Preponderance of a, so far, small evidence set seems to say so. A pol of other Alt fold who write/publish/are out spoken against PC would be interesting.

Jack Ward wrote:Question: what would be a good epub reader somewhat analogous to the Kindle paperwhite? My Kindle is on its last leg after much faithful service; and, the battery change looks iffy at best. Most used feature is the internal light and the digital 'ink' they use. If nothing out there to compete maybe 'Alt Kindle'?Kobo H2O. It has the same screen as the Kindle,, a better lighting system, and it's water-resistant. There are4 videos on Youtube of people throwing them in a sink or tub of water, and coming out alright.E-pub only, and Kobo is an extremely converged company, always pushing crap at me. It's not as easy to side-load, you have to use calibre or similar to load books into it.

Test it yourself. Tom Kratman's A Desert Called Peace (First Edition) from Baen is currently free. https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Carrera-Book-ebook/dp/B00B5HJOFY/. Note the ASIN, B00B5HJOFY. In the description, note the "At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management)." Now, when you download it with the latest Kindle for PC, here's what you will see: screenshot. Note the DRM voucher file. Also, Calibre will refuse to convert it. It gives an error about DRM. If you look at the files with a hex editor, you will find them encrypted.

Thanks for reposting. I loooooaaathe this blackballing going on and am getting so sick of NY Publishing. I'll start buying more of Castalia's stuff directly from the store too. Cutting out worthless middlemen is the name of the game now.

I've found my translations of EPUB to MOBI are not always as smooth as I would like.

Our .mobi files are just plain Calibre conversions. They are good because we seem to be the only publisher in the entire world that knows how to do proper EPUBs. But, you'll get the exact same .mobi file from castaliahouse.com as you'd make yourself with Calibre.

Normally publishers do EPUB conversions at these third party conversion services, and the result is unbelievably awful as far as the internal xhtml code goes. Which the customer won't realize until he tries to convert it into another format, and it all falls apart.

We on the other hand intend to sell the book to the customer in a way that has at least as long a future as a physical hardcopy. More so, if you store the file at a separate location so not even fire can destroy it. So, we care very much that the xhtml is 100% clean. So, you can use it as your master file, so that if the industry standard changes to another format in the next, say, ten years, you will know that you can convert your books to the new format.

EPUB is internally just a zip file that contains xhtml files, and some metadata. If you rename your book.epub to book.zip, you can actually open it as a zip, and look at the xhtml. So, for this reason it is the perfect format to guarantee maximum lifetime. There will never be a situation where you'll suddenly realize you don't have any means of opening a zip file, or reading a bunch of plaintext xhtml files.

For this reason, if durability is important to you, I strongly recommend storing away the .epub versions of our books even if you might at the moment read the .mobi versions.

I can't see any problems at www.castaliahouse.com and pages load in the expected time. Don't use https, it's not supported. Though since we are about to prioritize the site more, I'll probably buy a certificate soon. But as of right now, only http:// works.

@24,26I have read 12 books by Andrzej Pilipiuk and although they are great (he is probably my favourite author) especially the Jakub Wędrowycz series, I'm not sure how will they translate into western culture, because all except one of his novels I read were heavily dependent on communistic history of eastern block, and things which evolved in society because of it (distaste of government and police, do-it-yourself attitude, distrust of other people sprung out of fear of communist snitches, even the rampant alcoholism). The one exception is first part of his Deer's Eye series (rest isn't translated yet) which I personally regard as the least fun, lacking both wit and originality of his other writing.

I as Czech can relate easily enough, but I doubt this goes further west than former East Germany. Living in central Europe is really sweet spot sci-fi&fantasy-wise as we get to read the best of both western (mostly English) and eastern (Polish - it was part of eastern block too - and Russian) literature, while being able to relate culturally and appreciate both.

Perhaps you have a very old bookmark, which you only tried just now. We moved the blog to the front page. This also changed the URL. (it's now just plain castaliahouse.com , nothing more). The old URLs, which you may still have in your bookmark no longer work, and the error you got is consistent with an obsolete URL.

403 is not the kind of an error that could originate from a browser. I don't have Firefox but Pale Moon is close enough, and the site works with it. I still think you are getting an obsolete URL from your browser history or bookmark. Make absolutely sure that there is nothing in the URL field after the .com

Well, THAT was a rude awakening. I just when through several downloads and it appears that they are putting DRM headers on all of my stuff. Last month (or maybe it was February, I don't recall exactly) I had checked a few things for other non-DRM reasons (word-count) and those headers weren't there then.

I've just written to one of the 'executive action team' who I've been talking to this week about an unrelated issue. I may call him later. They did just make a bunch of changes to their software (which is why I've been dealing with them, as always, they don't test, so they broke a few things).

We, on the other hand, have an entire production pipeline that also affects the physical books, that depends on the files being internally perfect or the automation breaks. It is crucial to us, but it's just a small feature that 1% of customers even UNDERSTAND, for anyone else.

@112 & 113 A possibility. You would think any publisher would want to keep customers coming back. The sales pitch, presented correctly, to them might gain some business from those wanting to please customers. Now, if Jeff Bezos wanted to please me he would call Vox and tell that someone in his organization changed things re drm without him knowing it and, that it would be made right. If he really wanted to impress he would also mention in that phone conversation that he has decided to have his tech wizards make the paperwhite read epub well as the big A extensions. Yeah, that would be a warm and fuzzy. I might even start sending him Christmas cards.

@115 Markku:Sounds something like the automated engine Smashwords uses. I investigated a few years ago just out of general interest and was distantly impressed with just how precise the author to be had to toe the line on submissions. Seems to work for them. Having the automation come in at the author submission level, so early, probably keeps down payroll.

I can speak some on the new Kindle update. One thing the new format was designed to do is make books accessible through the Kindle application and reader to those with screen readers in a way they weren't before. This is one thing "enhanced typesetting" feature is designed to do. Unfortunately this has changed the format quite a bit and as of now the new stuff can't be converted. Ironically, if you're blind and don't/can't read Kindle files it is now less accessible. The solution as of now is to download an older version of the Kindle for PC app (before a.17, I think) and make sure to turn off the auto-update feature. This way you will still be able to download the old format. This has worked for me since January, when it started.

> The solution as of now is to download an older version of the Kindle for PC app (before a.17, I think) and make sure to turn off the auto-update feature.

Per the Apprentice Alf blog, there a file %localappdata%\Amazon\Kindle\application\renderer-test.exe (on Windows machines, obviously) which can be removed or renamed to cause the current version to still download the old format.

Could be. Do you have one set? Something somewhere in your path is denying you access, and it's almost certainly not Castalia House, as they would be blocking by IP address and it would affect all your browsers.

As James and Markku said, a 403 Forbidden error comes from a web server; the browser would never generate it itself. Since other browsers are working, it's probably not DNS or routing weirdness at your ISP, or a transparent proxy that would affect all of them. My first wild guess would be that Firefox is modifying the URL or sending some strange headers that are causing the server to forbid access. Are you familiar with tcpdump?

Your browser shouldn't be demanding either one, if it's not part of the URL you're typing in. Your browser should request what you ask for, and the server takes care of turning / into /index.php (or whatever) internally.

Unfortunately this has changed the format quite a bit and as of now the new stuff can't be converted.

Cannot = is illegal to.

Calibre guy says that the conversion for the un-DRM'd version of Amazon's new format is already in Calibre. Amazon is just not making it available, contra publishes explicit wishes. Apparently the new DRM setting is

@135I'm not quite sure what the problem is--I use a different program from Calibre, but one can remove the DRM on old Kindle files with it just fine. What is changed such that doing it for this would get him into a lot more legal trouble?

Yes--but what I am pointing out is that he already (as far as I can tell) did it once by enabling the removal of DRM from older Kindle files. Why is doing it this time so much riskier?

He didn't. Calibre has never been able to remove DRM from books where the publisher has requested it to be enabled. The other programs that do, are probably incorporated in China or some third world shithole. Before the change, Amazon respected the publisher's wishes. Now they don't.

The law says, both in USA and Finland (and probably most Western countries) that you can convert the format of any file you are licensed to read, but you cannot circumvent any DRM while doing so. So, since previously Amazon delivered un-DRM'd or DRM'd file based on what the publisher had chosen, what Calibre did was perfectly legal. But now Amazon doesn't offer any easy means of getting an un-DRM'd version of any book on sale at Amazon. The only current workaround is to use obsolete versions of their software or hardware.

@144Ah, I see. I had heard that there was a third-party plugin for Calibre that made un-DRMing possible. Your explanation makes sense. I don't know the law in other countries, but under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act people who are blind are legally allowed to break DRM if they do so for a noncommercial private purpose. (This was necessary for a long time, and still is in some cases.)

Yeah, I suspect that a major reason he has made plugins possible is precisely so that he can wash off his hands of any illegal activity while still making it possible. If someone else wants to write the code for that, and assume the legal responsibility, it is no concern of his.

It's entirely possible to be independent from Amazon. I've been watching the landscape, seeing authors do Kickstarters. Being independent is a struggle, not to make product, as ebooks are easy, but to become visible. Castalia House seems to be successfully navigating itself. Kudos.

> I had heard that there was a third-party plugin for Calibre that made un-DRMing possible.

The third party plugin is not associated with Calibre in any way. It merely uses Calibre's plugin capabilities.

I'm not certain a this point if the plugin is going to be updated to deal with the latest Amazon formats or not. We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime there are three workarounds (assuming you have an e-ink Kindle): Use and older version of Kindle for PC to download the files, rename the file I gave above to force the current version to download the old format, or use the download and transfer via USB option (which also forces the download of the old format).

Markku wrote:Then, download the free software Calibre and convert your .epub to .mobi. Then, email it as attachment from the email address you approved in the instructions above. Leave the subject and body empty.

If you have Kindle for PC, you can skip the email configuration steps, right click the created .mobi and use "Send to Kindle".

Thanks for the discussion of how to continue to keep DRM-free ebooks for digital paper Kindles such as paperwhite.

Markku and others: I'm sure you will be finding out from Amazon sometime soon if this is a new policy or just a careless oversight. Please pass on whatever you find that isn't confidential to the rest of us.

Because while I don't buy that many books from Amazon, I have been steadily loading up my Paperwhite for about two years. From the beginning I've backed those files up on other platforms, because of Amazon's infamous "1984" glitch. It would be frustrating to have to go through a lot of hoops to continue to read DRM free, and if I had to do that I'd likely consider a different platform than Kindle and a different service than Amazon.

It would be a lot easier to just keep using Amazon and other services. I have no problem informing Amazon of this, if it's now their policy to screw around with DRM-free ebooks. Again, please keep us informed.

The kindle paperwhite is my preferred e-reader for sustained reading, and one-click purchase convenience. We also have the kindle, ibooks, and nook apps on our various phones and tablets, so if you decide to do epub only, I can adjust accordingly. Is there a recommended app/program/device for epub? Keep up the good work!

As for what I found, it appears that all of my books are now DRM'd. Even though I have never set it that way. I'm still waiting for Amazon to respond to my latest query. Another 'letter to bezos' might be in order. However I'm worried that one of these days they'll just get tired of talking to me and pull the plug on my acount instead.

Thanks J Van. Bunch of crap, this. Pull your acct? Maybe talk to Vox and consider Castalia. If your stuff is good they will be interested. The variety of offerings at Castalia are true diverse [the good kind] and increasing exponentially. Please keep us informed. Again, thanks.

@158 J Van. Hit your site and Children of Steel caught my eye. The first chapter seemed promising and the price was right. Got it. Have not tried to convert it to epub yet; just for fun, you know. If good I will write a review.

This is precisely why Castalia House exists. And this is why, if you do not wish to see total convergence in SF/F of the sort now seen in the comics industry, it is vital to continue to support it, and to spread the word about it.

> The reinstall worked, no problem accessing the site now. Sorry for the fuss.

An update most likely failed to install properly, Borking your Firefox installation. I've seen it happen before. There are other ways to try to fix it, but they involve the command line and aptitude, apt-get, or dpkg commands (none of which are my forte, since I use Slackware, but I know enough to look them up). An uninstall/reinstall is easier for most people.

@70 Sheila, check out Matt Bracken's three-book series. I bought them to support him (after reading his Tet Take Two essay at Gates of Vienna) -- thinking "oh geez, it's gonna be totally amateurish." I was very wrong. THere were a few hints of 'not-quite-pro' -- but very well-written (kept me up all night cause I started reading the first one in the evening... the second two I started in the morning!).

Painful because he is SO on point about the coming "troubles" in the U.S. He's a good writer with a deep grasp on what's coming.

@70 Oh, also the "Dies the Fire" series by Steve Sterling (writes as S.M. Sterling). Truly apocalyptic -- ghastly and brilliant -- and they make you start hording food and ammo! I only read the first 4-5 of them, he went on but I had lost interest.

Sterling's Draka series (alternate history) is FASCINATING! My husband asked me to read them before I came to him -- because the Draka series explained a lot about him and how he saw the world! (And thus began a big chapter of my un-brainwashing!)

I think the point I was trying to make is that Castalia House and others like it can only stand to become giant publishing empires while the current big converged houses are failing as a result of their surrender to the ideological crazies.

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